Janna in Kudat marina

Our travels were once more mainly work-oriented. We (yes, both of us!) were offered an interpreting job in Taiwan for one week in the second half of August, and since we kind of had to overstay our visas last time before we left Taiwan (we had to wait for our new hank-on genoa to be recut and Petr’s stitches to be removed), we now had to apply for a tourist visa in advance as part of the “punishment”. We could either do it in Kuala Lumpur or in Singapore and since we have special emotional ties to Singapore (after all that’s where we bought Janna), we didn’t think twice before deciding to apply for our Taiwanese visas there.

And so not even a week after our arrival to Kudat, we flew for a few days to Singapore and got our visas to Taiwan. We spent the next week translating and then packed our bags once again and after four hours ride on a minibus to Kota Kinabalu and a night spent at the airport, we finally boarded the plane that was to take us back to Taiwan.

Once our work there was over, we traveled to Kaohsiung, where we stayed a week more. Our friend Kevin kindly offered us to stay in his newly opened B&B – basically a big apartment on the ninth floor with a huge, professionally equipped kitchen and stunning view of the Kaohsiung harbor. During the day we worked on our translations and in the evenings met with our friends, both old and new ones.

Welcoming party at Kevin’s B&B

The two weeks in Taiwan passed so quickly! Before we left Kudat, we were really excited to return to the island, that was basically our home for more than eight years. What would it be like? We honestly didn’t know. Suddenly it felt as if it’s already been ages, since we sailed away. Can we still speak Chinese? However, once we stepped out of the plane, it was as if we left only yesterday, not more than four months ago… We headed infallibly towards the bus stop to the center and once on the bus we counted the well-known landmarks and buildings on our way to town.

We enjoyed Taiwan to the fullest – we traveled both north and south, experienced spells of sunny weather as well as two typhoons (in 2 weeks!); we savored all our favorite Taiwanese delicacies and under Kevin’s guidance even sampled some new ones. And last but not least, we of course filled our backpacks to the brim with special provisions for our future voyages. On our way to airport we stayed overnight with a Czech friend in Taipei, who is now relocating back home after more than ten years in Taiwan…

Back at the Kota Kinabalu airport we first had lunch in already familiar restaurant and then managed to stop a private taxi that took us to town for third of the price of that of the airport taxis. Man, it was a wild ride! Once we got in, the taxi driver swapped the CD with Indian slow dance rhythms for a wild dance music, pumped up the volume and while we stared at him eyes wide open, he started swaying violently to the rhythm behind his steering wheel, occasionally letting it loose in order to clap his hands and give a whoop of joy. Normally we would probably laugh at the sight of such a show, except that the loudspeakers were blasting right next to our ears: “I crashed my car into the bridge, I don’t care, I love it…” We nevertheless survived the ride from the airport unharmed and after another four hours on a minibus the driver kindly dropped us off right next to the marina gate.

Back aboard Janna we once again enjoyed the silence and relative solitude – after all we are still in a marina, albeit half empty nowadays, not in a deserted anchorage! On the other hand, I have to admit, that for the first two days (at least) it felt kind of lonely here – after two very social weeks in Taiwan with every evening spent in the company of our numerous Taiwanese friends, it took several days for us to get used to the fact, that our only companion in the cockpit after dark were swarms of mosquitoes.

Now, however, we are back in the cruising mood and can’t wait to be back at sea! Hopefully within a week or two at the most! We will continue SW (luckily the SW monsoon seems to be getting weaker these days) following the coast of Borneo towards Kuching, then cross over to Singapore (actually to Danga Bay, Malaysia, we probably won’t enter Singapore with the boat, since it’s too expensive) and from there through the Malacca Strait to our previous cruising grounds, including Lumut, Langkawi, etc. The ultimate next destination is Thailand, where we hope be sometime mid-November…

Most important reason for getting out of Kaohsiung is that we are starting to forget what silence sounds like. We do live in the Chinese society, so there it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a bit more noise. The Chinese are by nature playfully noisy, which is cute and most people are just unbelievably friendly, but we grew up on the Bohemian meadows, groves and peripheries of small Czech towns, we simply need a good helping of silence and quiet.

We have also received the worst Christmas present ever. In December, they closed the public toilets just next to the marina, where we stay, so we had to go to the public toilets at the ferry station across the bridge.

The walk, we didn’t mind. The eyes (and mouths) wide open stares of the local bums and their taxi driver friends, the same guys every morning, we soon started to detest. Especially Jana. I tried to walk with my chin high up, making a strenuous effort to show that I don’t care.

One day we said enough. We wanted to leave on Friday, but our departure was delayed by troubles with LPG. We were expecting to burn the rest of the gas in our last cylinder any day now, but it just wouldn’t oblige. For almost ten days we were waiting for the gas to run out, baking breads and pizzas, frying, brewing tea and coffee. Nothing seemed to be enough to deplete the gas.

Finally, Friday evening, the gas ran out. What a relief! Naturally, it was in the middle of cooking a well-deserved dinner.

We recanted the gas from a Taiwanese bottle into our American cylinders. Gravitation rocks! It usually takes us about three hours to fill our five kilo cylinders. In the meantime, we have re-sewn the cover for our roller-furling genoa, finished lazy-jacks and baggywrinkles. We had also chance to practice our machine sewing skills on a new cover for the LPG cylinders. We still need a bit of practice to get the stitches even, but the result is functional.

In the end, we’ve spent another weekend being monitored by the hysterically curious mainland Chinese tourists.

Monday morning, we have stocked up some fresh produce, packed some stuff that we stored under the dinghy on the pontoon and set out to sea to test not only our downsized propeller but most importantly our new mainsail.

We’ve complained about the problems with our propeller before. After the latest adjustment we were almost certain that it’s fine, but just to be sure we asked Volvo Penta people from Kaohsiung to come and have a look. We are hopeless amateurs after all. On the phone we first inquired, how much they charge for an hour. Well, if there is nothing wrong with your engine and we don’t have to repair anything, we can’t charge you, can we? You just got to love Taiwan! Last time engineers from Volvo Penta touched our engine was in Singapore and their negligence lead to a broken engine mount and big repair. But this time it was different. The engineers were really helpful.

Turns out, our engine was OK, the good men only suggested we ask the company to make our propeller even smaller. So back into the water (luckily the Kaohsiung harbour was quite clean those days), take the prop off, jump on the ferry to Qijin and cross our fingers hoping the grinder gets it right. He did.

Monday morning we woke up to a nice breeze and just about the time when we got everything packed, the wind died. We strolled to the breakwater where a lovely breeze slapped us on our cheeks and lifter our spirits. We ran back to the boat, too excited to walk, cast off and finally got out of the polluted harbour.

Once we passed the coast guard station, we revved the engine up and looked at each other totally amazed. Do you hear what I hear? The engine is much quieter than before. No vibrations, no nothing. The new prop worked perfectly. Also the fuel consumption should drop, we have to test it someday.

Excited about the engine we hoisted our brand new mainsail. We saw her up few times in the harbour to test the boom hardware and our lazy-jacks.

Jana was steering as usual and once the sail was up, she pushed the tiller slightly to one side, the sail filled up with air and the camber bellied out. We gasped for breath. We were completely exultant over it and we remained in the state of total joy for the next few hours, days in fact. We rolled out our genoa and struggled slowly in a light air. We allowed the engine to help us for about an hour and take us out of the shadow of the Firewood hill, which was obviously ruining the nice breeze that was blowing further out. The hill likes to do it every time. Then we began to glide over the almost flat surface of the sea, speed above three knots, north by west, towards our new abode in a small fishing harbour Xingda, about fifteen miles north.

We didn’t have to touch the sails for the next few hours. We were conveniently following the west coast of Taiwan, only once or twice we gave way to a fishing boat, mostly by slowing down.

Right before our destination there is a huge gas loading structure, which extends more than a mile to the sea, where the big tankers tie up.

We were getting closer and closer and started to discuss whether we are going to make it. We played with Janna at the borderline of the no-go zone, but soon it became apparent that we won’t be able to head high enough and will be blown down on to the structure. Quick tack and ten minutes of heading away from the coast. Suddenly the wind moved more to west. Seems like we would have made it around that gas tanker after all.

We tacked back and following a slow curve while easing the sail, we passed behind the breakwater.

From the breakwater it’s about another mile to the inner harbour. We were told that the coastguard might come to check upon us when we get there, but being a foreign boat, we watched the coast guard station and surely enough, two guys in orange overalls ran out waving and watching us in the binoculars. We responded by the same — binoculars and waving. But the guys on the other side didn’t seem to be satisfied with our waving and signaled that we should go to them. We started the engine and rolled the genoa, because the station is in a narrow passage and it was time for fishing boats to get out through there. We drifted in front of the station for a while. We refused to tie up to a nasty looking wall, about three meters high, coated with truck tires tied with thick chain.

There is rather sophisticated system for foreign yachts to register their coastal passages. But the problem is that the coast guard stations don’t have access to that system. So these guys knew nothing about us, were asking for a form that you are supposed to leave with the coast guard station at the harbour you are leaving from. In the end we persuaded them that they could call Kaohsiung and check that we really came from there.

Just a little hassle. Nothing major. We let the engine revolve slowly and sailed in a beautiful breeze into the inner harbour basin where the floating pontoon and our new base camp is.

We were greeted by our old Taiwanese friends, who own a lovely sailboat S2 9.2. They were so kind to take us for a dinner (nice Korean restaurant in Tainan) and show us around a little. The Taiwanese are extremely lovely and helpful, but don’t trust their judgment of distances. “Very far” can turn into an easy 15 minute bike ride. But these distance warnings are definitely a great way to a pleasant surprise!

We finished the day by a lovely pu-er tea on a Lagoon cat in the new Tainan An-ping marina. Thank you Brian from Lucky Grass.

The next days were like a dream come true. No people. Complete silence. During the day we revised our translation of the novel Magic garden by Taiwanese author Li Ang, at about four o’clock we would finish and set out to explore the country around on our folding bicycles. There is a wonderful fish market nearby, which sells fresh and deep fried delicacies of the sea. You walk through a narrow street, stalls on both sides. At every stall you are attacked by outstretched hand offering a taste of fish tiny and small, sushi, shrimps, small crabs, squid and what not. At the end of the street you turn around and walk along the other side. When you get back from where you started, you are stuffed!

Two days ago we returned to Kaohsiung, to give a talk at the center of the Buddhist humanitarian organization Tzu Chi. Their theme for this year is “living simple life”, so our way of life seemed quite appropriate there. The talk went quite well, apparently. Before the talk we were treated with a delicious lunch by our other Taiwanese friends Jessica and her lovely family. Another thank you!

We also wanted to meet Swiss cruisers on a cat Celuann that arrived to Kaohsiung just when we left. They came from the Philippines were they spent two years, so we were eager to get some information from them, and possibly help them arrange any repairs they might need to have done here in Taiwan.

It is national holidays because of the Chinese New Year, so we are once again living in public, this is with capital P. And capital A. In fact, it’s a big ass PUBLIC and I feel like a little startled kitten, eyes wide open, gasping for air and wishing I was somewhere far far away.

Fortunately the date of our departure and return to the quiet Xingda harbour has been set for tomorrow!

We wanted to leave Taiwan before Christmas. Now we don’t even remember how we then imagined doing that. Do you know what the main obstacle that’s been keeping us here really is? Work. Naturally. Since the beginning of our “two year vacation” we haven’t paused for a bit.

So far we have followed the famous saying “study, study and study”, which has recently been transformed into “translate, proof-read, revise”. The fruit of our efforts seems to be quite consumable.

Naturally, we could enjoy our literary translation days in places other than along a promenade full of Mainland Chinese tourists in the middle of a smelly harbour. We are still here, because we have been asked to help out with a translation in a nearby factory. We admit that we have succumbed to the sweet jingle of money (actually it was more of a rustle).

However, even the weather tells us that we have little to complain about. Last month two smaller typhoons streamed right across the Philippines and last week has seen a tropical storm cutting it across southern Palawan and went totally bananas, turned back and smashed against Borneo. The world is changing, no doubt about that. Today the outlook in our beloved South-East Asia looks like this: Three lows are rubbing against each other, sucking down the monsoon, now cut loose, and it’s blowing hard and sooth is coming down from the sky. Is that necessary? I think not.

Not to mention that the Australian meteorologists had to add more colour codes to their temperature scale so that they can map temperatures surging up to 54°C.

In the words of a famous Czech playwright/writer/actor Jan Werich (I made no attempt to rhyme)

Oh yeah, we know all about it

And we say that

Let’s keep our heads buried in the sand like ostriches

It will burn our coat-tails at the most.

Only it could cost the people not only their coat-tails,

But lives and considerable amounts too…

Since we have to sit here for few more weeks, we started to work on project that we planned to leave till the Philippines, like a dodger a la Jean-du-Sud, i.e. instead of using stainless-steel pipes for the frame, we have used an inflated a fire hose. Seems to work just fine. Now we have to get down to sewing the actual dodger.

Also we brought a new mainsail from Hong Kong yesterday. Will try it out tomorrow if the weather is fine…

“I woke up every hour since midnight. Whenever the boat tugged harder on her mooring lines, I checked the whereabouts of the typhoon on the iPad. Once I was woken up by a splash of rain which got in through the half-open companionway. That’s what I call a rouse!”

During the last week we got completely accustomed to our live-aboard life. We rummaged through all our lockers and and shelves, we rearranged the mess on the quarterberth, where we put everything we want out of our sight, and we have sorted all the remaining bags and boxes and their formerly mysterious contents to allocated spaces. After a rather disconcerting arrival, we have finally settled down, once again we know where everything is stored, we relearned how to reach for this or that most effectively, where to duck so that we don’t smash our heads, and how to lean against the bulkhead when we wash the dishes and the harbour police motorboat passes by.

Slowly, but steadily, we improve our little floating home. Before we left Hong Kong, we bought a new cabin light, because the old LED didn’t do a proper job and we wanted to have a red light for night passages. The new light has two switches, one with three states: white light, off, red light, off, and so on. That means that to get a white light, you have “click through”, which started to annoy us. The second switch, labelled “Spreader”, was disconnected. So I have rewired the whole thing, each switch controls one bulb and we can even turn both bulbs on. Together they light up the cabin quite nicely. The red rubber thingy that was on one of the bulb was fried dry and fell of anyway. So when we need red light, we slap some red foliage over the whole light.

We also finally mounted our new fan. We longed for a rotating fan that would stir the air in the whole cabin. We bought ourselves a cheap 15USD Chinese auto fan and so far it does a very good job. We’ll see how long it lasts at sea, but the marinized fans are so expensive that this is the only option for us anyway. Before mounting we ran the fan from the nav table for few days and we soon found out that the switch is getting very hot when ran at slow speed. So we tied the switch right on the fan. It’s a hideous little plastic box and it gets almost lost on the fan, not to mention that it’s cooled by the passing air.

With some concern we have pumped out the diesel tank, expecting a swamp since on our last trip before going back to the Czech Republic we had to change the prefilter twice. We were nicely surprised that it was actually quite clean. We filtered the diesel, topped the tank to prevent condensation and we also calibrated a new fuel dipstick. The engine started without a fuss, purring along. We only adjusted the idling speed. What a relief! (Having had our share of troubles with the engine in the past and Volvo Penta spare parts being so expensive, we still get a little nervous when starting the engine sometimes…)

Even though the typhoon was approaching, the weather was still good yesterday, so we jumped into the water and scraped off all the barnacles and other crap that started to breed on our hull. Unfortunately we have found out that our tiny zinc disappeared from the prop shaft and that the propeller has been seriously eaten by the stray current, which is quite considerable here in Kaohsiung. No electrical standards have been applied to the wiring of this marina. From time to time people get an electrical shock from the steel fence, wires are routed through the water everywhere. Our small zinc that we screw on the prop shaft was perhaps too little or just fell off due to the corrosion. Well, we had to bite the bullet and order a new propeller. When we haul out in Hong Kong in autumn we have to improve our zincing possibilities. We don’t plan to stay in marinas much, but one never knows.

For this weekend we had plans to sail to a small island about 17 miles from Kaohsiung, but we have to postpone that, not only because we are propeller-less, but more importantly, we need to wait for the seas to calm down after the typhoon’s gone…

Prices of fruits and vegetables often shoot up after typhoons so we stocked up in advance